It is common for workers employed in the construction and maintenance aspects of any heavy industry to enter into hazardous situations during their normal scope of employment. Examples of such activities include digging trenches for pipelines, entering confined spaces such as sewers or large storage tanks, and climbing on the exteriors of tall structures such as buildings, process columns, exhaust flumes or power line towers. Great efforts have been expended through the implementation of OSHA regulations to minimize the risk of such activities, and workers are now required to wear standard safety gear, follow specific safety procedures, and often must continuously monitor the surrounding environment with specialized sensors.
Regrettably, unforeseen circumstances sometimes occur or mistakes are made which render a worker incapacitated and unable to extract him/herself from a dangerous situation, and where it would be equally hazardous for rescue team members to enter and attempt to retrieve the fallen individual in person. In such circumstances it is better for the rescue team to first attempt an extraction by remotely attaching an auto-locking carabiner and safety rope to a ring or hanger on the fallen co-worker's safety harness and pulling the individual to safety.
This non-committal rescue is accomplished by means of a carabiner holder mounted to the end of an extension pole. The user manipulates the extension pole to secure the carabiner into position about the ring or hanger, and then releases the carabiner to allow the carabiner holder to be withdrawn.
Unfortunately, the current state of the art for carabiner holders does not satisfy the needs of the safety and rescue sector. During a rescue operation, the ability to extend the reach of the rescuer in any orientation is of primary concern. But it is especially critical when the fallen worker lies downward and away from the rescuer's location, such as in a trench, down a sewer manhole, in a ventilation shaft, or lower on the face of a tall structure. In this orientation the weight of the rescue rope, which is often denser and heavier than typical climbing ropes, acts crosswise to the orientation to the extension pole and tends to pull the carabiner out of its holder before it can be attached to the incapacitated worker's safety harness.
Furthermore, a rescuer is likely to be nervous or agitated during an emergency and may be unable to hold the extension pole completely steady. If the rescuer does bounce the extension pole while attempting to attach the carabiner, these shocks will increase the probability that the carabiner will fall out of the holder before it can be attached to the harness. It is therefore vital that the carabiner holder be capable of securing the carabiner firmly in any orientation while supporting a substantial section of free-hanging safety rope, and at the same time withstanding any additional forces generated by rescuers.
The carabiner holders presently available have been adapted from the climbing industry and are not sufficiently strong or robust enough to provide reliable operation in an emergency situation. For instance, the carabiner holder used by climbers is principally designed to extend the climber's reach directly overhead to hangers that lie beyond arm's length. In this orientation the weight of the free-hanging rope attached to the carabiner serves to better seat the carabiner into the carabiner holder. If the carabiner holder is extended too far to one side or the other, however, the weight of the rope tends to pull the carabiner out of position, possibly making the carabiner inoperable or to fall out of the holder altogether. In a climbing situation this is not too great of an issue, as there is usually ample time for the climber to pull the carabiner back, re-attach it to the holder and try again. However, such unreliable operation in an emergency situation could prove fatal to the fallen party.
Existing carabiner holder designs are also complicated to operate, as they require special manipulation of the holder when connecting the carabiner to a ring or hanger, or they call for twisting or pushing the extension pole to one side to release the carabiner from the holder after it has been attached to the safety harness. Such procedures may be forgotten or overlooked by a would-be rescuer in the heat of the moment, slowing down or hindering the speed of the rescue operation.
Furthermore, in the climbing industry it also is standard practice to manufacture components from lightweight plastic, thin-wall aluminum or specialized polymer fibers in order to minimize the total weight a climber must carry with him. Current carabiner holders follow this pattern, and several commercial products are made from plastic components with pieces that could easily break off if handled improperly. Industrial safety and rescue teams are not limited by such weight constraints, but instead require a carabiner holder made from heavy-duty components that can withstand the rigors of an industrial work environment and still function correctly when pressed into service for the first time.
Likewise, the carabiners used in safety and rescue operations are typically larger and designed for heavier duty than their counterparts used in climbing. The carabiners also come in a variety of sizes and configurations, with each carabiner manufacturer providing a product having its own unique shape and/or auto-locking gate arm configuration. Existing carabiner holders are limited in that they must be sized to match a particular carabiner, which typically prevents the holder from being used with a carabiner of a differing size, from another manufacturer, or which uses a different auto-locking gate arm configuration. This selectivity creates an additional burden on the safety and rescue team to ensure that the carabiner and carabiner holders are procured and/or operate well together, and that the holders and matched carabiners are kept separate from other equipment to ensure there are no mis-matches that could delay a response in an emergency situation.
What is needed, therefore, is a carabiner holder that meets the special requirements of the safety and rescue sector. The carabiner holder must be durable and robust with the capability of withstanding some physical abuse and still providing reliable operation when an emergency situation arises. The device should be compatible with a broad selection of carabiners made by differing manufacturers and which can come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and gate arm configurations. The device must also be simple to use, as rescuers can often be nervous or agitated when time constraints dictate that a fallen coworker or friend be retrieved as soon as possible. And finally, the holder must provide reliable operation in any orientation, and not allow the carabiner to fall out of position or out of the holder prematurely if the individual to be rescued is located in an awkward position.